The appearance of billboards stuck in the middle of Liberty Chowk in Lahore proudly advertising the Punjab Enforcement and Regulatory Authority (PERA) is the first subtle hint to the public that Punjab is set to go down the path of a draconian principality.

The authority, known by its acronym PERA, has been a major agenda item for Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz since the beginning of 2024. The premise for setting up the authority was innocent enough. Since the beginning of her term, the Chief Minister said she wanted to set up an enforcement agency at the disposal of the bureaucracy and the Chief Minister to enforce price regulation and help retrieve encroached land, they claimed.

The issue with price controls

Even in this initial, tame introduction, the idea of such an authority is frustrating. It represents the worst of Punjab politics. The idea that the government can, without any consequences, set prices for commodities and force private traders in a supposedly free market to comply. There is also the assumption that such actions will convince voters to support whatever party is in power.

We have seen many manifestations of this upsetting side of provincial politics before. The story is pretty familiar. You have the Chief Minister conduct a ‘surprise’ visit to a Ramzan Bazaar with the usual crowd of lackeys and protocol flunkies hot on their heels. The CM derides high prices, hears a few grievances, says a few random monosyllabic words about hoarding, and promises to bring down prices. The photographers of the Directorate-General of Public Relations (DGPR)–the government’s PR arm–click away, and press releases are forwarded to every newspaper known to man. So when Maryam Nawaz expressed an interest in visiting bazaars, announcing reductions in prices, and performing the press talk circuit, it was not too surprising. At best, it was her trying to be politically expedient given her party’s popularity problem. At worst, it was plain stupidity.

Price controls, of course, are a fairly stupid idea. Controlling prices was a policy introduced by the British during the Second World War, and implemented through their network of powerful district commissioners. When Partition happened soon after, India and Pakistan took different approaches to what they would do with this bureaucratic network.

Guided by Nehruvian Socialism, India continued the wartime efforts of the British and made price controls and rationing an integral feature in its economic policies. Pakistan took a different approach. Instead of focusing on using the bureaucracy as an economic management tool, the country’s military leadership focused on using it to monitor and govern for law and order. Economic policy largely favoured free market principles.

But the fear of inflation seems to dominate Pakistan’s discussion of many economic policies that have little to do with inflation or the cost of living. For example, both the public debate and the political debate over what prices the government should set for its agencies’ sales of wheat and fuels is dominated by a widespread belief that........

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